A Demon Among Heroes
by A Fan1204
Summary: I was found by people with extraordinary and strange powers but to them I was the strange one. Not knowing how I ended up in this world, I let them help me only to find myself standing among heroes. But how can I walk with heroes when I look at myself and only see a demon?


**AN: What in god's name am I doing? Another story, and a crossover no less? Well what can I say, I just couldn't help myself. Though I'm going to be frank with all of you, this story will be a side project for me, my main focus will continue to be on my first story. That being said let's see where this adventure takes us shall we?**

**Disclaimer- I do not now nor have I ever owned the rights to either Naruto or the DC universe nor do I plan to acquire these rights any time in the near future.**

* * *

**A Demon Among Heroes**

Chapter 1: Remnants of the Past

* * *

_(Konohagakure)_

_Pain raced through the blond's body as he corrected himself in mid-air from the invisible wall of force that had been thrown at him. His feet hit the ground and he dug in as he slid across the earth below before he came to a halt, taking in deep breaths as he stared at his last opponent._

_Purple eyes with a ringed ripple like pattern stared back at him with a stoic expression, his eyes never leaving his target now that he was so close. "You cannot see the forest for the trees. You just don't understand the meaning of true peace. Surrender peacefully. With your death, peace will be assured."_

* * *

_(Metropolis)_

Naruto jolted into a sitting position from his spot on the ground where he was previously sleeping. He brought his hands to his face and tried to force the images from his mind, his hands rubbing his eyes in a vain attempt at trying to calm himself. "_The same dream again…"_ The spikey haired blond whispered to himself.

Ever since he had woken up in this strange city over a month ago he had the same dream every night. His mind wouldn't let him think of anything other than his final battle with Pein. He had relived every part of the fight at least a dozen times, every mistake, every misstep, every sacrifice…

He let out a loud sigh as he looked up to see parts of the clear sky above him, his vision obscured by a series of fire escapes and tall buildings that made up the alley he had slept in. At least the dream had ended earlier than usual, he hated reliving the last part, it destroyed him a little more every time he saw it.

Standing up, Naruto slowly began stretching out his limbs before he started making his way out into the street. He quickly blended into the crowd as he moved with the masses. One thing that astounded him about the city he had ended up in was that it was absolutely massive.

Naruto had always thought that Konoha was huge for a city but Konoha wasn't even on the radar of this place. The sprawling city went on for miles on end in every direction. After exploring the city for the entire month he had been here he had only explored about half of the city, something that still baffled him at the audacity of the statement itself. The sheer scale of this place was nearly beyond the young shinobi.

At one point he had tried counting the number of people that lived within the confines of the city but he had stopped after he had more than tripled Konoha's population.

With the city's incredible population came even more impressive structures. Instead of having large compounds like he was accustomed to seeing back home, he saw incredibly tall buildings that easily dwarfed the Hokage Tower that were beyond anything that he had seen back in the Elemental Nations. But for all of its majesty and glory, the city was far from perfect.

It didn't take long for the blond to find out that crime was off the charts in this strange place. From petty crimes to murder and everything in between, this place had them all in spades. Coming from a military village, the concept of mass crime was a foreign one to Naruto.

In a shinobi village people listened to the laws, there were no two ifs, ands or buts about it. When at least a third of your population consisted of the military that doubled as a police force peopled tended to follow the rules to the letter. That wasn't to say that there was never any crime in Konoha, there was always a theft here and there, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the city he was currently in.

But as bad as the crime was it was nothing compared to the so called 'super villains' that would pop up every now and again. He had watched the local police force try and deal with them but it was painfully obvious that they were woefully out gunned when it came to combating them. Sure the police had their fire arms but those weapons were next to useless against whatever power the villain had.

It was like watching a bandit with a spear fight a trained shinobi. It was always a completely one sided massacre until a 'super hero' showed up. Occasionally different heroes would come to fight but there was one that showed up far more frequently than any other. From what he could discern his name was Superman. An odd name but rather fitting considering that everything the man could do was beyond anything a normal human was capable of, even beyond what most shinobi were capable of. The man was frightening to watch in combat. Naruto knew that there was no way that he could beat the superhuman in a direct fight, even with his new Sage techniques.

The sound of his growling stomach forced himself out of his thoughts. Scowling to himself, he looked around for one of the many stands that always littered the streets. The reason why he was scowling wasn't because he was hungry, it was because he knew what he had to do because of his hunger.

After finding himself in this strange city, he quickly learned one very important thing, he couldn't understand a word anyone was saying and vice versa. This led to more than his fair share of misunderstandings and one or two run in's with the local authorities.

With no money and no way to talk with anyone he had to resort to stealing whatever food he could just to get by. He learned very quickly that the best way to do it was to henge himself before getting anywhere near his target and transform back once he had shaken anyone that was following him after the fact.

Seeing a fairly large news stand with an assortment of snacks facing the street, Naruto ducked into the closest alleyway, far away from any prying eyes. With a quick hand seal and a nearly silent whisper, a plume of smoke surrounded the blond. As the smoke cleared, a middle aged man with brown hair with a pale complexion wearing a brown trench coat replaced the spot Naruto was just occupying.

With a frown, Naruto made his way back into the street. The stand itself was a simple stand that had multiple different newspapers and magazines, the most prominent being the Daily Planet. Picking up the latest copy his eyes briefly scanned over the images on the page, not bothering to even try to comprehend the words on the paper. It featured Superman fighting against some ridiculous looking machine, a rather common occurrence if he thought about it. The event had happened yesterday and it ended in a very anti-climactic fashion with Superman simply destroying the robot with his immense strength.

"Hey buddy! This ain't no library, either buy it or get out!"

Naruto looked up at the angry man yelling at him from his spot at the front of the stand. He didn't know what he was saying but he could take a guess. Smiling sheepishly, Naruto folded the newspaper and slowly put it back on the stack of papers before quickly making his way out of the stand.

He didn't turn back as he hurried through the street, weaving between people that were moving too slowly for his tastes. After walking for over a mile, Naruto ducked into another alleyway and looked around to make sure no one had followed him. Satisfied that he was alone, he let his transformation drop revealing the blond in his worn jumpsuit with a bag of chips in his hand.

It wasn't much but beggars couldn't be choosers. He hated the fact that he had to steal from anyone, knowing full well what it was like to have things stolen from you. This resulted in him only stealing the bare minimum to survive. That of course had its own slew of problems but he just pushed those thoughts away, he wasn't a stranger to going hungry most of the time, he would persevere, like he always had.

"A bit much just for a bag of chips don't you think?"

Naruto turned around with wide eyes at the sound of the new voice but didn't see anything. A growl tried to escape his throat but he suppressed it as he looked at the ground and saw a shadow slowing getting smaller. He turned his head up to look at the descending figure, his vision obscured by the light from the sun.

Landing on the ground, the new man gave Naruto a playful smirk while he folded his arms over his impressive chest. "You know, when I first saw you transform back in that alley I thought you were up to something far worse than a petty theft."

This time Naruto did let the growl leave his throat as he stared at the one person he definitely didn't want to run into. Standing in front of him was a man in his early twenties with short, jet black hair and vivid blue eyes not unlike his own. The man was wearing a blue spandex suit that had a yellow shield resting in the middle of his chest with a red S inside of the shield. The man's red cape gently moved as the slight breeze blew between the two and he gave the young blond in front of him a disappointing look. "Tell me, why is someone that is clearly gifted resorting to using those gifts for petty crimes? You could do so much more for yourself and your community if you used your powers to help others."

Naruto in turn just glared dangerously at the larger man while tensing his muscles, ready to move at a moment's notice. From the way the man in front of him was talking to him it looked like he was being lectured, though there wasn't any way for Naruto to be sure of that. Still, it didn't matter what the superhero wanted to say, even if Naruto could understand the man it wouldn't change anything. Naruto knew what happened to those that broke the law in this place and he wouldn't be able to figure out what the hell happened to him if he was locked away in some jail cell.

Not caring about the hero's reputation, Naruto broke out into a run in the opposite direction as he tried to escape from the superhuman. Superman on the other hand just sighed loudly before shaking his head and looking at the fairly quick teenager that thought he could run away from him. "It's going to be like that is it? Fine, I'll play along."

Wind gushed past Naruto's face as he made a mad dash to the other end of the alley. He knew full well that he had no chance at out running his pursuer but if he could make it into the open street he could easily blend in with the crowd. He leapt into the air and landed about halfway up the chain link fence that separated the alleyway in two and quickly scaled the structure before landing on the ground running.

He only managed to get a few more feet before a blue and red figure blurred in front of him. The large muscular man crossed his arms over his chest again before giving Naruto a challenging grin. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to get away from me kid. Come on, impress me."

"_Kuso_". The young shinobi barely managed to stop his forward momentum in time to avoid colliding with the hovering superhero. Naruto reached behind his back and slipped his hand into his supply poach which was running dangerously low on everything. He quickly found what he was looking and pulled it out while hiding it from the man's field of vision. He really didn't want to use his last smoke bomb but he didn't see how he had any other option.

Raising the small ball above his head, he gave Superman a defiant look before slamming the small orb on the hard concrete. Smoke quickly filled the limited space in the alley and Superman shielded his eyes from the unknown gas out of instinct. After realizing that it was only smoke and with the sound of a gush of wind the man of steel snapped his head upwards and watched as the mysterious blond shot out of the cloud of smoke and actually ran up the walls of the building until he was out of view.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting that." Superman said to no one in particular as he watched the blond with a raised eyebrow. He stood there for only a few seconds before he continued to give chase, blasting off of the ground with all the power of a true Kryptonian.

Naruto pumped as much chakra into his legs as he could to try and reach the other end of the rooftop he was on. He knew he needed to get into a more crowded area instead of being on the top of a skyscraper. The last place he wanted to be was in a wide open area where Superman could swoop in from any angle and literally pluck him off his feet. As absurd as the thought of a man freely flying was to Naruto, he had seen Superman do it on numerous occasions and he really didn't want to press his luck.

Naruto cursed to himself as he stumbled as his left thigh painfully spasmed. With a growl he fought through the pain and kept running. This had been happening for the last two weeks, whenever he had to use any form of chakra augmentation on his muscles, those muscles would in turn try to cause as much pain as physically possible.

Naruto remembered the one other time in his life that he had experienced this. During his three year training trip with his deceased master, the man had deemed it necessary to teach him how to survive and fight while in a half starved state. Jiraiya forced him to eat barely anything and still trained him into the ground. The results were excruciating, the act of molding chakra became one that had to be avoided if at all possible.

It wasn't until after he had completed the training that Jiraiya told him why he put him through that. Jiraiya had told him that chakra was by definition the mixing of both his physical and mental energies but when one or the other were out of line the act of molding chakra was incredibly painful and sometimes fatal.

For Naruto, his physical energy depended on not only the condition that his body was in but also on the energy that the body had at its disposal. With no food and by proxy energy, the body naturally took what energy it could from what little had been stored. In Naruto's case, the only stored energy in his body was located in his muscles. Normally the process of breaking down muscle for energy would take a significant amount of time but molding and using chakra sped up that process by an exponential rate.

The result, a rapid degeneration of his muscles any time he needed to use an excess amount of chakra. Though Naruto had to hand it to his deceased master, doing that training had been a lifesaver, literally as he probably would've gotten himself killed if he wasn't already used to the pain.

Seeing a blur of blue and red out of the corner of his eye, Naruto planted his feet into the ground and came to a grinding halt just a few feet from the edge of the roof. Floating just off the side of the building was Superman, his confident smirk on his face as his cape lazily fluttered in the wind behind him.

"You surprised me back there, I didn't peg you as the type that could run up vertical surfaces. Tell me, what else can you do?"

Naruto didn't say anything as the man just watched him with an expectant look on his face. Naruto took a deep breath before he shut his eyes and relaxed his body. He knew enough about Superman that the man wouldn't attack someone that was undefended, much less someone that looked like they were giving up.

A small feeling of safety filled Naruto as he felt the familiar sensation of Nature Chakra fill his body. It was harder to balance the three energies inside his body with his physical energies being so out of whack but he adjusted it quickly enough. The great thing about using Nature chakra was that it didn't have the draw-back of destroying his muscles like his normal chakra did.

Superman sighed as he shut his eyes and shook his head. He was actually disappointed that the teenager was giving up so easily. While he didn't think that the kid was actually trying to fight him, it was amusing to see all of the different tricks the kid could do to try and escape him.

The sound of something whistling through the air made Superman open his eyes to see two metal knives flying towards him. The Man of Steel didn't even flinch as he watched the strange looking knives sail through the air. It wasn't until right before the knives were about to hit him that Superman saw something was off about the projectiles. He noticed a small, almost invisible shimmer coating both blades before they dug into his chest, spilling blood from the now open wounds.

Superman's eyes widen as he felt the pain of two knives implanting themselves halfway up the hilt into his chest. The shock of actually being stabbed by what appeared to be just regular pieces of metal nearly made the superhero miss the quickly approaching thief.

Moving his head to the side, Superman easily dodged the quickly thrown punch aimed at his chin. He was then sent reeling to the side as his left cheek became indented in the form of a fist. Quickly catching himself, Superman held his cheek in shock of actually feeling the force behind the attack, more than enough to actually shake him momentarily.

There was no way the kid was strong enough to actually hurt him. The boy was half starved from his appearance, his cheeks had sunken in drastically and his clothes looked two sizes too big with the way they hung off his form. No, something had changed in the time he had run into the boy in the alley to just now and Superman knew it had something to do with his eyes.

Their eyes had met briefly as the boy passed the stunned super hero. The vibrant blue eyes of the spikey haired thief had changed into a dull gold color with a slightly larger than normal pupil. Superman couldn't explain why but the change looked wrong on the kid, like whatever he did wasn't what it was supposed to be, an empty shell of what the technique was meant to be.

Superman's eyes tracked the now free falling form of the blond that had just punched him. The boy had dropped into a dive as he tried to reduce any air resistance that he could in an attempt to quicken his descent. Superman didn't care what the boy had done to his body, the fall was over 15 stories and if it didn't kill the kid it would break every bone in his body, that wasn't something he was about to let happen.

Rushing past the teen, Superman turned in the air about five feet from the ground and caught his target with his fist, the appendage sinking into the blond's gut as the thief painfully twisted around the limb.

If there was one thing that Superman knew, it was the feeling of a limp body in his hands. He could still feel the rise and fall of the blond's chest but he could also feel the complete lack of struggle that would accompany an awake super human thief, it would be a few hours before the blond woke up.

Superman frowned at the unconscious boy in his arms. The look he had seen in the boy's eyes when he saw him wasn't necessarily fear but more akin to anxiousness that bordered on dread. That wasn't the kind of look he wanted the people of Metropolis to look at him with. The only people that did look at him that way were the longstanding villains in the area but the teen didn't look like any villain he had dealt with before.

Actually, the teen didn't look like anything he had dealt with before. He wasn't a hero, that much was obvious and he didn't appear to be a super villain even though the blond had attacked him. The boy's movements were frantic, rushed and every little move was made out of desperation.

The boy was half starved, scared and couldn't understand what anyone was saying if the foreign language he had used was anything to go by. The blond reminded him of another teen that had recently entered his life and it made Superman groan at the thought, the last thing he needed was another super powered teen to take care of.

Either way, with everything that Superman could do he knew he was woefully ill equipped to deal with something like this and quickly hefted the surprisingly light boy over his shoulder and took off into the air, leaving the city of Metropolis behind him.

* * *

_(The Batcave)_

"Clark, you're telling me that this teenager was actually able to hurt you through brute force alone? I'm sorry to say that I don't believe it."

The Man of Steel looked at his longtime friend with an annoyed look on his face. Even though it didn't show, he knew the dark caped crusader was enjoying the story he had told him. "I'm not making this up Bruce. This kid is more than meets the eye, you more than anyone should be able to understand that."

Batman turned away from the Kryptonian and started punching in commands into his super computer. He knew far too well what it meant to overlook someone just based on appearance. He had more than enough scars to remind himself not to make such a costly mistake.

But even so, the boy's genetic code was amazing and frustrating at the same time. He hadn't seen anything quite like it and that interested him more than anything else. "Where did you find this kid Clark?"

Superman merely shrugged while taking a glance at the person in question. The boy was strapped to a metal bed with metal cuffs around his wrists and ankles. The strange meta-human hadn't woken up since Superman had knocked him out but they weren't going to take any chances. "I found him stealing some chips from a newsstand in Metropolis, he only caught my eye because he used a strange transformation spell to do it. I haven't seen anything like it, not even from Giovanni."

Batman hummed to himself as he read over more results from his super computer, easily splitting his attention between the new information on the screen and the words Superman was saying. "Giovanni Zatara is the League's foremost expert in the arcane arts, you would be hard pressed to find any kind of magic that he isn't familiar with. Perhaps we should call him in once we finish our preliminary analysis."

Superman eyed Batman carefully before moving his attention to the computer screen on the wall. A strand of DNA came onto the screen with several boxes encasing smaller sections of it. "It looks like your preliminary analysis is over."

Batman scoffed at the Kryptonian's assumption and continued to enter in key strokes at a lightning fast pace. "Hardly, I've only scratched the surface of what he is. I have a battery of tests to run before we can have a true understanding of what we're dealing with. And then I'll begin questioning him."

The last part was spoken more as an afterthought but Superman narrowed his eyes on the back of one of the founders of the Justice League. "You plan to interrogate him don't you? He's only a child, he can't be much older then Richard, don't treat him like a criminal Bruce."

At this Batman turned away from his computer and stared back at the Man of Steel with unwavering eyes. "If you haven't noticed Clark, that's exactly what he is, a criminal. You confronted him because he had committed a crime, add to that the fact that he was able to physically wound you with regular iron blades. This leaves us with an unstable and very dangerous unknown. I'm not willing to take any chances."

Superman brought his hand up to his chest where the two knives had dug into his flesh. The wounds had already healed but the memory would not fade for quite some time. "He was scared and starving, he was only stealing food to survive. You can't blame him for that. I won't stand for that."

Batman wasn't even phased with Superman's response, in fact he had anticipated he would say something similar. "And in that attempt to steal food he ended up fighting and wounding you. Imagine if you weren't the one that confronted him. What if it was a police officer or just a Good Samaritan? Those blades hit you over the heart and lungs, you don't accidentally hit the dead center of two vital organs by chance, he was aiming for your vitals. If you would've been a regular person he would have shredded you in seconds."

Superman paused in his argument to think about that. It wasn't that simple, everyone knew who he was, he wasn't the average person, he was Superman. Language barrier or not, the blond must have known that something like that wouldn't have killed him, right? "I don't care, he still has the right to defend himself, and I refuse to pass judgment until I hear his side of the story."

Batman turned away from the alien and went back to working on his computer, his hands a mere blur as he worked. "Do whatever you like, I would prefer if you stayed around anyway, you might be able to relate to him more than you know. From what I can tell, he's anything but human."

At that Clark raised an eyebrow before walking up behind the billionaire. "What do you mean not human? Is he Kryptonian?"

Bruce heard the hope in Superman's voice and decided to crush it before it had a chance to grow. "No, but he isn't human, at least not completely. His DNA sequence is similar to ours but it's missing certain aspects that make us human."

"So he's a meta-human?"

Batman shook his head as another splice of DNA came up alongside that of the mysterious blond's. "No, a meta-human only has a few changes in their DNA sequence that gives them their abilities. This person's DNA is drastically different in comparison but close enough to pass as human. The only true comparative is an alien's DNA."

Superman grabbed his chin in thought before turning to look at the still unconscious boy. "That would explain the fear and panic in his eyes and the lack of communication. Though I could've sworn I heard him speak in Japanese. Maybe it was my imagination?"

Batman turned around to face the unconscious boy while dropping his body into a light fighting stance. "We'll see soon enough, he's waking up, be ready Clark."

* * *

_(Konohagakure)_

_Naruto's eyes surveyed the destroyed remains of his home, dust still billowing about from the recent destruction. The only thing that still showed he was in Konoha were the five stone visages of the Hokage. Everything else has been reduced to rubble._

_A pale green and purple toad looked up at Naruto with a serious expression on her face. "It's obvious who did this isn't it? I feel the same presence that I felt on little Jiraiya-chan's shoulder not too long ago."_

_Naruto's eyes hardened in anger at the mention of his sensei's murderer. Pein, he was here. He did this to his home, did this to his friends, he would make him pay!_

_A young man with spikey orange hair with multiple piercings covering his body walked through the clouds of smoke, undaunted by the 3 monstrous toads in front of him. His purple rippled eyes gazing at the blond human riding a top the giant toads. "You've saved me the trouble of looking for you, Uzumaki Naruto."_

* * *

_(The Batcave)_

Naruto's eyes snapped open at that moment, golden eyes with a round black pupil in the middle staring straight ahead as his muscles fought against the heavy restraints. With a powerful pull, Naruto ripped his arms free from their bindings before quickly ripping off the restraints around his ankles.

The vivid memories of his fight with Pein rushed back into his mind as adrenaline began to pump through his body on overdrive. The nightmares always made him wake up in a fright, couple that with finding himself being held down by metal restraints was cause enough for Naruto to go on the defensive.

Naruto quickly jumped off the table before he dropped himself into a frog stance while facing off against the two men in the room. He recognized Superman straight away but the other man standing next to him that had dropped into a taijutsu stance was a complete unknown. He had no idea what was going on but he would be damned if he let himself get captured again. _"Kono yarō de sore o motte kuru!"_

Batman didn't move from his spot and judged his next words very carefully, not sure if he could properly convey want he wanted to say._ "Daunsutando, watashitachiha tatakau tame ni shitakunai"._

Superman looked between the clearly hostile blond and the Dark Knight. He hated not being able to understand what they were saying, maybe it was time to start learning some new languages? "Can you understand him Batman?"

Batman didn't take his eyes off his potential opponent as he tried to translate what the blond said. "Partially. He speaks in an incredibly old variant of Japanese that I'm not that well versed in but I can pick up words here and there. It'll have to do."

"_Stand down, we do not have to fight, surrender peacefully."_

Naruto was nearly shocked when he was able to understand what the darker dressed man was saying. It wasn't a perfect translation but it was more than enough to comprehend. Unfortunately, he had no intention of surrendering. _"I'm not going to be arrested indefinitely for trying to survive, just leave me alone!"_

Naruto didn't wait for a response and he charged forward to meet his unknown captor. Naruto knew he couldn't fight Superman head on but if he could take out one of them he might be able to buy himself some time to escape.

With nature itself enhancing his speed, he was within Batman's defenses within seconds. Moving straight forward with a quick jab, Naruto was surprised to find that Batman had grabbed onto his wrist and guided his fist off and to the side, easily missing everything even with the attacks enhanced range.

Not deterred in the slightest, Naruto rolled with the impromptu throw and bounced off his heels, throwing himself right back at the Dark Knight.

Batman gave his opponent a wide berth as he let the punches sail wide, avoiding any and all attacks. Bruce remembered what Superman had said, once the boy's eyes turned gold his attacks had become exponentially more dangerous. Blades became sharper and melee attacks were more than just melee.

But even for the teen's impressive speed and skill in hand to hand combat, Batman could see the flaws in his movements. They were frantic, desperate to land any kind of blow that he could only assume would be debilitating. The formal training was clear as day for anyone to see but the blond's physical condition all but negated any danger the teen could have presented.

In the kid's half-starved state it was easy for Batman to read his movements and staying a step ahead was child's play. Batman guided another fast moving punch off to the side and returned with a devastating upper cut that hit cleanly on Naruto's chin.

Batman held nothing back as he saw the teen fly backwards from the force of the blow. To the teen's credit, he managed to correct himself mid-air and land on his feet while holding his jaw. Bruce didn't let up the pressure and this time he went on the offensive, sending a barrage of quick punches and kicks that forced the presumed alien to backpedal with each attack.

Naruto cursed himself as he let another punch through his defense. He rolled with the blow and continued to backpedal like his life depended on it. He was better than this, he knew he was! He just couldn't get his footing, his body was sluggish even with the nature chakra working its magic. And to top it off he had apparently chosen to fight someone who could've given Gai a workout in the hand to hand department.

Naruto blocked another high punch before he felt a knee sink deep into his stomach. Naruto didn't even have time to double over in pain before he felt two hands on his shoulders that proceeded to throw him across the room.

Naruto felt his back impact on hard glass that refused to give. Pain raced through his body as the nature chakra quickly left him, leaving his bruised and beaten body with zero protection. Every part screamed at him to be still but he refused to listen as he slowly forced himself onto his knees.

With a shift in the wind, Naruto looked up to see the face of the bat like superhero looming over him, his figure as menacing as any villain he had seen in this world. _"You will stay down. Like I said, we don't want to fight, only talk."_

Naruto glared up at the Dark Knight but made no motion to oppose him. Fighting wasn't going to get him anywhere now. The point was backed up further as Superman walked up behind the masked crusader and the two shared a look. Neither looked particularly happy with the other but surprisingly it was Superman who backed off.

The Dark Knight motioned for the blond to move back onto the metal bed to sit. Naruto complied, moving onto the bed while carefully watching the two superheroes. Naruto watched as the masked hero handed Superman a small ear piece before he turned to him, his face as neutral as it was when he was beating the crap out of him. _"What's your name?"_

"_Uzumaki, Naruto. Dattebayo."_

"_Where are you from?"_

"_The Village Hidden in the Leaves in Fire Country."_

Batman turned to Superman with a knowing look. He had given Superman a translator that could filter some of the words so he wouldn't be completely out of the conversation. "He clearly isn't from Earth. The only question now is where exactly this Fire Country is."

"_There isn't a Fire Country on this planet. You're on Earth, do you know what planet you're from?"_

Naruto slowly shook his head in the negative. He wasn't as shocked as he thought he would be. For quite some time now he had expected something to this extent. The things these people could do, the strange culture, everything about this place screamed alien to him. But there was expecting something and then there was getting confirmation about it. It was still unbelievable that he had ended up on another planet.

It was easy for Batman to read the strange alien. It appeared that the teen had come to the same conclusion a while ago but still didn't fully accept the reality in front of him. It wasn't unheard of for people to discard an unfathomable reality and replace it with something that was far more in tuned with how they saw the world.

But it didn't seem this Naruto had fully discarded reality, instead he merely chose to ignore it for as long as possible until it was no longer deniable. It was clearly impacting the blond but Batman still had questions he needed answers for. _"Why and how did you come here?"_

Naruto looked up at the caped crusader and just shrugged at him, not sure how to answer either of those questions. _"I don't know. I didn't even know where I was until just now. I know even less about how I ended up here."_

It made sense to Batman, the teen had clearly arrived here recently, only a few months if he had to guess. He had no understanding of their language and little to no knowledge of what the Earth had to offer. He had picked a fight with Superman for his first encounter after all, not the smartest move.

A different line of questioning was in order while Naruto was still being cooperative. Maybe he could jog the teen's memory. _"If you don't remember how you got here, then tell me, what was the last thing you were doing before you ended up here?"_

Naruto turned his gaze to the floor at Batman's question. That wasn't something he was comfortable talking about. The last thing he had remembered had been haunting him for over a month now, every time he closed his eyes, every time he had a moment to rest and think, every time he saw someone that looked like _her._

"_Naruto, you need to tell us so that we can trust you. If you want us to help you then you have to be honest with us."_

Was he pushing the blond? Perhaps, but it was something he was more than willing to do. He had seen something like this happen one too many times, a person shows up out of seemingly nowhere with unexplained powers and no memory of how they got here. It was a recipe for disaster if it wasn't handled properly.

Naruto continued to refuse to look at Batman or even answer the question, focusing on the floor with a regretful look on his face. He was lost in his own thoughts, replaying his fight with Pein for the thousandth time.

Superman rested a hand on the distressed teenager's shoulder. It shocked Naruto at first, almost lashing out with a fist on instinct. He was jumpy, paranoid even and the slightest touch could set him off. But the Man of Steel was surprisingly comforting even without words. His disarming smile and the aura he projected put Naruto slightly at ease. It was hard to believe that this man had beaten him into unconsciousness only hours earlier.

With a sigh Naruto looked at Batman's expectant face, seemingly not caring about the blond's emotional turmoil. _"I was fighting someone, someone with a ridiculous amount of power. He believed himself to be a god and he had the power to back it up. He had destroyed my village during his invasion, all because of his own perverted sense of justice."_

That was story that was all too familiar to the caped heroes. They knew quite a few individuals that had a god complex that decided to act on it and nothing ever good came out of it. It seemed that no matter where you went, there would always be people out there like that.

Still, the answer was far too vague for Batman's liking, too many holes that needed to be filled. _"There has to be more, what happened during the fight?"_

That was something Naruto had asked himself time and time again. He had been looking for an answer in his own mind but to no avail for nearly a month. All he remembered was that he fought, he lost, a flash of lavender hair, a spray of blood on the ground and then nothing. _"I don't remember. I fought Pein, he pinned me to the ground and then nothing._"

Batman narrowed his eyes on the teen but was stopped from saying anything more by a firm hand on his shoulder. He glanced at Superman and held his gaze for only a second before he turned away and went back to his super computer. Clark Kent was a stubborn man about many things, and a grieving teenager was one of those things. This Naruto was haunted by whatever happened in that fight. He definitely remembered something but Superman was clear about where he stood when it came to extracting that information. Clark didn't even have to say it, Bruce just knew him that well.

"Bruce, we should help him. He's in no condition to be on his own. I mean just look at him, it's amazing he's still alive."

Batman let out a small sigh, knowing that the Kryptonian would say something along those lines. "Yes it is, which raises more questions that I doubt our new friend would be willing to answer. I don't like this Clark, there are too many unknowns here. He needs to be monitored and then we can decide what to do with him."

"Fine. I'll take him back with me to Metropolis. I'll watch over him until he can get back on his feet and then we can find out more about him. Right now he needs to recover more than anything else, physically and mentally."

Batman scoffed at Superman's suggestion, clearly having very different thoughts than his comrade. "You taking care of this boy would be inadvisable at the very least. You can't communicate with him and you don't have the time necessary to teach him. You have your job at the Daily Planet, not to mention your other responsibilities. Not only that, you should really think about getting to know a different super powered teenager before you go and adopt another one."

Clark scowled at Batman's back. Bruce's not so subtle shot at how he was dealing with the discovery of his 'son' was a cheap shot if there ever was one. "I'll deal with… Superboy in time, there are some things that I need to deal with first. This takes priority. Where else is he going to stay? With you?"

Batman turned around and gave Superman an empathetic look, at least as close to one as the Dark Knight could manage. "Superboy's name is Conner, Conner Kent, and he needs you. There's no one else in the league that can explain what he is better than you can."

Batman walked over to Superman and put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me deal with Naruto, I have far more time on my hands to help him adjust. You need to focus on Conner because like it or not, you're the closest thing to family that he has, and you should know just how important that is."

Superman tried to find a fault in Batman's logic but inevitably sighed and looked away. He couldn't argue with Bruce on this. He knew he was in the wrong, the only thing stopping him from admitting it was his own inner demons not wanting to believe that Conner was what he was. "You're right Bruce, as usual. I'll leave Naruto in your hands, I'll check in every now and then."

Batman gave Superman a pensive stare just as the Man of Steel was about to take his leave of the Batcave. Superman caught the look and hastily added onto his sentence before he took off for Metropolis. "And I'll talk with Superb… err Conner as soon as I can."

Batman watched Superman fly out of the Batcave at a more reserved pace than what he was capable of. Bruce then turned to the blond still sitting on the bed that was eyeing him warily. Batman smirked internally at the teen's obvious dislike of being left alone with him.

Both men turned away from each other as the sound of the door at the top of the stairs in the cave reached their ears. A young girl with dazzling red hair in her mid-teens slowly jugged down the stairs. She had bright blue eyes and an athletic build. She wore a school uniform that consisted of white, button up long sleeved shirt, a black blazer over that and a pleated skirt.

She ran up to Batman and stood rigid as he looked down at her, his facial expressions giving nothing away. "You're late."

Barbara winced at his harsh tone but didn't say anything. She knew that Batman didn't like excuses and it wouldn't do any good even if she did have one. Ever since Robin had formed his new team with Kid Flash and Aqualad a month ago her mentor had become even harsher, whether he realized it or not didn't matter, all that mattered was that her work load had nearly doubled.

Batman turned away from Barbara and directed her towards Naruto. "This is Naruto Uzumaki. He's going to be staying with us for the foreseeable future."

Barbara looked Naruto up and down and wasn't that impressed with what she saw. His clothes were baggy and from the look of his face he was malnourished. He had bruises on his face from a fight he must have gotten into recently. The only notable thing about him was that he had black, whisker like birthmarks on his face and his blue eyes held a fierceness to them that she wouldn't have expected. "Hello, my name is Barbara Gordon. It's nice to meet you."

Naruto just stared back at her and didn't say anything. Barbara was going to say something before Batman cut her off. "He doesn't speak English, only a very old dialect of Japanese. He won't be able to understand you for quite some time."

Barbara frowned at Batman as the man started walking away, going deeper into the cave to prepare for what he could only assume would be a long night. Was that all he was going to tell her about the stranger that was apparently going to be living in the Batcave? "Is that it? Who is going to look after him? Who is going to teach him English? You don't have time for any of that."

Batman turned around and for the briefest of seconds Barbara could have sworn she saw a grin on his face. "That's your job."

* * *

_(Batcave: One Month Later)_

Barbara was in her Batgirl costume minus her cowl as she leapt out of range of a quick sweeping kick launched by her opponent. Barbara couldn't believe how quickly things had changed in only a month. Naruto had turned out to be full of surprises.

It only took him a couple days to recover once he had actual food to eat on a consistent basis. After that things had been a blur for Barbara. She had thought that teaching someone a new language from scratch was going to be difficult but she hadn't counted on her new student being able to produce solid clones of himself. The fact that anything those clones learned transferred back to the original upon being dispelled was completely unfair.

He had picked up nearly an entire language in less than two weeks. After the language barrier had been all but destroyed, Barbara had the great surprise to find out that her new friend wasn't even human, at least not completely. That was something that she wished her mentor would have told her. He had claimed that it wasn't important at that stage to inform her of it, saying it would've only served as a distraction at the time.

Barbara didn't believe a word of it but she decided to leave good enough alone. In the end it didn't change anything, her relationship with Naruto had grown all the same.

Speaking of which, Barbara was surprised how much the blond had grown on her. His upbeat attitude that he always had was infectious. The more Naruto learned her language the faster teaching him became less of a chore and more like hanging out with a friend. An incredibly strange friend with stranger abilities, but a friend nonetheless.

Still, Naruto hadn't fully adjusted to living in their world. It was clear as day that Naruto wanted nothing more than to return to his home. He would try to hide it but she could see it, he was depressed. It didn't happen often but his mask did slip, only when he thought no one was watching. It was becoming less frequent as time passed and Barbara could only hope that he would brake out of it soon.

"Barbara!"

Barbara's eyes widened as Naruto's fist stopped just short of smashing into her face. If that punch had the same power behind it that Naruto usually used that probably would've broken her nose. Barbara stumbled backwards to recompose herself, that wasn't like her at all.

Naruto frowned at the pretty red head. She had been distracted the entire time they had been sparring. Normally Barbara could fight him toe to toe in their spars but today was different. She was always a step behind and could barely manage to avoid his attacks when he pressed the issue. "You ok Barbara?"

Barbara shook her head to knock the cobwebs loose. She couldn't believe she had been so out of the fight to nearly been decked like that. "Yeah, sorry Naruto. I was just distracted. Won't happen again."

Naruto just smiled back at the girl, glad to know that it wasn't anything serious. "Good, you wouldn't want Batman to see you like that. Who knows how he would punish you for that?"

"She will soon enough."

Both teens jumped at the voice of the man they were talking about. The man moved silently as he walked through the cave, not bothering to look at the two teens as he made his way to his super computer. He didn't have to look at them to know that Naruto had a scowl on his face. Batman had learned quickly that Naruto hated being snuck up on and it irked him to know end that Batman could do it seemingly effortlessly. It had become a subtle form of training for the blond and Batman himself. The shinobi was good at detecting him and improved all the time, thus forcing Batman to put more effort into it.

But that was as far as any form of training went between the two. Batman had refused to train anyone other than Robin and Batgirl and even though Richard no longer lived at the Batcave, he was still Robin. "Naruto, how are you adjusting, do you feel comfortable here yet?"

It was a strange question to ask after living with the man for over a month but there was a reason for it. Batman had been judging his answer to the same question for nearly two weeks, the answers had been relatively the same, with little deviation. To Batman, it showed a mental stability that he had been questioning ever since Naruto came under his care. But even so, something still worried Batman when it came to Naruto. Even though everything pointed in the opposite, Batman still thought something was wrong with the blond.

Naruto just shrugged at Batman's question. It was weird but he had been asked it so many times before he was just used to it. "Just like I said yesterday. It's different than home but I'm getting used to it."

Batman accepted the answer like he had accepted all the ones before it. Naruto was adapting well to being in a completely foreign world but this wasn't enough. He had limited contact with anyone. He spent most of his time with Barbara and when she wasn't here he only had Alfred and very seldom the Dark Knight had time to just chat. Superman had kept his promise and checked in periodically but even that wasn't enough.

Naruto needed to interact with more people his age and more people in general. With that thought in mind Batman had thought of multiple different solutions to the problem, the best solution being the one he was acting on now. "Naruto, as I'm sure you are aware, you can't stay in the Batcave forever. You need to interact with more people, and to that effect I'm going to assign you a new place of residence. You'll be living there from now on until we can find a more permanent solution."

Naruto and Batgirl were taken by surprise at the new turn of events. There had been no indication that Batman was even considering something like this. On one hand it made Naruto happy. Nothing against the brooding caped crusader but the Batcave wasn't exactly homey. He was never allowed to leave due to security purposes and he had been feeling rather cramped as of late.

The down side was that he wouldn't be seeing Barbara every day. She was the only real friend that he considered having in this new world and not having that constant in his life wasn't something he would prefer. "And where exactly is this place?"

Batman punched a few commands into the super computer and a picture of a large mountain next to the ocean popped up. "This is Mount Justice, the current base of operations for the Justice League's Black Ops unit. The unit is comprised solely of the apprentices to different members of the league with a league supervisor overseeing the operation. You'll find teammates your own age to interact with as well as being allowed to freely roam outside. You can consider your probation over."

Naruto let out a dry laugh at the probation joke. It was hard to find but Batman did have a sense of humor, even if it was buried under years of psychological damage and an attitude so cold it gave Mr. Freeze a run for his money. Then Naruto replayed what Batman said and something clicked in his head. "Wait, teammates?"

Batman hit a couple more keys and six boxes came onto the screen, each with a different person inside of it. "While living in Mount Justice, you will be joining Young Justice and you will be expected to pull your own weight by joining them on missions. Think of it as paying off your rent for the last month."

"Oh come on! You've got to be stinking rich to afford all this crap, there's no way you're seriously charging me rent!" To say Naruto was a bit miffed was an understatement. While Naruto wasn't from this planet, it was obvious that all this equipment cost more than the average person could afford.

Batman turned to look at Naruto and Barbara and actually gave him a smirk before walking over to the lone teleporter in the Batcave. "That is irrelevant. Now come, I've already sent over all the things that you'll need to settle in. You're new team is waiting."

Naruto was taken off guard as Batman waited impatiently next to the teleporter. This was happening way too quickly, how was he supposed to respond? Naruto turned to Barbara who had an expression that was somewhere between angry and sad, it was clear she wasn't liking the change.

Naruto grabbed Barbara in a big bear hug that she returned after she got over the shock of the sudden move. Naruto let go of her and made his way over to Batman who started entering the coordinates into the teleporter. "Well I'll see you around Barbara, visit sometime ok?"

Barbara merely half smiled and waved as the two men disappeared in the light of the machine. Now being the sole occupant of the room Barbara let out an annoyed scream at being left behind again. First Dick had left and formed this team without even inviting her and now Naruto was put on it? Was she not good enough? It pissed her off to no end!

"Are you quite alright Miss Gordon? I heard you scream."

Batgirl turned to see Alfred standing not that far away with a bemused look on his face. Great, just great, that's exactly what she needed. With a huff, Barbara stormed past the butler and made her way to her Batcycle, she needed to blow off some steam.

* * *

_(Mount Justice)_

_Recognized: Batman-Zero Two. Guest-Zero Zero_.

Naruto held his stomach as the feeling of going through a boom tube for the first time rattled his breakfast. Batman could've at least warned him about that before they left.

"Greetings Batman, is this the newcomer you informed me about?"

Naruto followed the strangely robotic voice back to its owner and saw a large red android with a yellow arrow on its head and it was wearing a blue and gold cape. This was Red Tornado if Naruto remembered correctly. Barbara had drilled Naruto on hundreds of heroes and villains and she made damn well sure that he at least remembered the heavy hitters, and this was one of them.

Naruto felt a hand on Naruto's shoulder and looked at Batman questioningly. The masked man didn't say anything to him though as he continued talking with the android. "Yes, this is Naruto Uzumaki and he will be joining the team for the foreseeable future. His skills should be very useful."

The android turned from Batman to be looking at Naruto. "Welcome Naruto Uzumaki, I am Red Tornado. Batman has informed me of the special circumstances that surround you and your addition to the team. You will find that you are among friends here. If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact me."

The robotic voice was going to need getting used to but at least it was nice. The android was making an honest effort to try and make him feel welcomed, that was a good sign. "Umm, thanks Red Tornado, appreciate it."

Naruto felt awkward talking to a machine as if it were alive. But he had a nagging feeling that the awkwardness would pass, after all, he had spent the last month living with people who dressed up like bats and fought crime, how much stranger could this world be?

"Ohhohoho, is this the new guy? He don't look like much. Owwww!"

"Shut it Wally, you don't look like much either."

Naruto turned to look to see six people walking up to him and the two heroes. The two arguing were a blonde haired girl dressed in green that had a bow in her hand with a quiver full of arrows on her back and a red haired guy that was wearing a full yellow body suit with a red lightning bolt on his chest.

The one in yellow was rubbing his rib cage as it appeared he was trying to defend himself which only made the blonde archer angrier. The other four just ignored the two quarreling as they walked, clearly used to such antics. Naruto didn't know what to make of the rest of them.

The tallest one had an eerily similar look to Superman which was reinforced with the Superman shield sitting predominately in the center of his black shirt. The darker skinned one with gills was clearly an Atlantean. The red headed girl with green skin was obviously not a human, her features resembling that of the Martin Man Hunter.

The last member of the group was one that Naruto did recognize. Barbara had complained nearly non-stop about how Robin had run off and formed his own team. It was funny, Naruto thought Robin would be taller.

Everyone in the group regarded Naruto differently. What Naruto could only assume was a Kryptonian gave him an uninterested look, seemingly not interested in his arrival. The Martian smiled at him brightly while she waved. Naruto returned the wave halfheartedly before he turned to Robin who was giving him a neutral stare, analyzing the new comer like he was a puzzle. It wasn't anything strange, hell, Naruto expected it out of someone trained by Batman.

The archer and the Flash look alike had stopped arguing long enough to give a hello. The blonde girl smiling at him while the latter gave a weak wave, still put off from his argument with the girl next to him.

It was the last member of the group that actually walked up to Naruto and reached out to shake his hand. "My Name is Kaldur'ahm but everyone calls me Kaldur. We've haven't heard much about you Naruto but if Batman thinks you're ready to join our team then we look forward to working with you. Welcome to Young Justice."

* * *

**Wow, ok then, that just happened. I have no idea where this idea came from but I've been toying with it for about six months before I decided just to write it out. I'm going to be honest with you guys, I'm rather new to the DC universe so bear with me while I get things started.**

**This is completely new territory for me so I'm not exactly sure how to write a DC crossover but I'm more than willing to give it a shot. This is a side project for me so keep in mind that this probably won't be updated nearly as much as my other story but now that I've started it I won't abandon it, that's a promise from me to you.**

**So if you've followed me here from my other story or if you're a new reader I hope you guys are strapped into this ride that we call a story. DC is known for the crazy shit it pulls from time to time and this story will have plenty of that.**

**Also, for fans of my other story, I should have the next chapter out by Saturday by the latest. I would have it out earlier but I have midterms this week so I probably shouldn't have even got this intro chapter out but meh, my life has been full of bad decisions.**

**And for those of you who haven't read my other story, go give it a read if you liked where this story is going and don't forget to drop a review!**

**Quick note for those that are interested. This story will loosely follow the events of the Young Justice TV show. References will also be pulled from other movies/shows as well as the comics themselves. I'll try to avoid the New 52 since most people are familiar with it.**

**Peace out!**


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